Oh! If only we could trade in real-world troubles for the confectionery town of Schmigadoon. Granted, we’re not sure exactly where it is, nor do we have a clue as to why everyone is dressed in prairie dresses, Edwardian suits, or chore coats. And sure, it’s problematic that there will be an auction at the social where women are auctioned off for a date. “Somehow we’re ok with this,” the townspeople sing in winking fashion. There is so much mystery around this fantastical place that has just landed on Broadway.
What we do know is that most of the residents in the town are cheerful, jaunty, squeaky clean, and they can’t stop singing about, well, anything and everything. And by the final curtain, even cynics who loathe musicals will exit the Nederlander Theatre with elation, humming the tunes and buzzing with joy.
It seemed only natural for Schmigadoon!, the short-lived 2021 Apple TV series, to transfer from screen to stage. Although it lasted for a scant two seasons, it found a devoted audience of musical theater fans. A stage adaptation of the first season premiered in early 2025 as part of the now-defunct Broadway Center Stage series at the Kennedy Center. It was directed and choreographed by Christopher Gattelli, who returns to do the favors again here.
The cast is top shelf and perfectly in sync with one another. All seem to relish in the tongue-in-cheek nature of the material that pays homage to classic musicals, including Oklahoma!, The Music Man, Carousel, Finian’s Rainbow, and, of course, Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon, a story that finds two American hunters lost in a mysterious Scottish town.
Josh Skinner (Alex Brightman) and Melissa Skinner (Sara Chase) are similarly lost. After crossing a bridge in the Catskills that leads to Schmigadoon, the pair realizes that they are trapped. The only escape is to find true love, which will be challenging given that their relationship is on the rocks.
Melissa has a shot with Danny Bailey (Max Clayton), a handsome young carnival barker or with Doc (Ivan Hernandez), the town’s more mature medicine man. Meanwhile, Josh is considering dalliances with Emma Tate (Isbaella McCalla), a prim and proper type, or with Betsy (McKenzie Kurtz), a flirt who combines the giddiness of Gertie and the horniness of Ado Annie from Oklahoma!
The more serious townsfolk include Mildred Layton (Ana Gasteyer), head of “Mothers Against the Future” and wife to the possibly gay Reverend Layton (Maulik Pancholy), Aloysius Menlove (Brad Oscar), the beloved town mayor who is gentle and tender but wants to be more like a pal to his wife Florence (Ann Harada).
Brightman, whose previous Broadway roles have been overly bombastic (School of Rock, Beetlejuice), plays things low-key, offering up a solid performance as an average dude trying to correct past romantic mistakes while expressing his constant disdain for musicals.
Gasteyer, a Saturday Night Live alum, delivers a powerhouse, lyrically dense eleven o’clock number with “Tribulation,” a song that cribs liberally from The Music Man’s “Ya Got Trouble.”
Schmigadoon: Brad Oscar and Maulik Pancholy
Cinco Paul‘s music and lyrics are perfect satirical replications from the golden age of musicals. Schmigadoon! reflects his love for the form, and although he pokes fun at their corniness, he does so with affection and admiration. The orchestrations by Doug Besterman and Mike Morris are positively lush, and David Chase’s arrangements are this side of perfect.
Gattelli gives classic dance moves to his cast, drawing inspiration from Michael Kidd, who choreographed numerous shows from the forties and fifties. Barrel turns and athletic jumps are prominent throughout — it’s impossible not to be enchanted and impressed by the spirited choreography.
Having a working knowledge of classic musicals certainly enhances the enjoyment of Schmigadoon! and many references will be more easily understood. Yet even theater newbies and those who haven’t watched the television show should appreciate this extraordinary gift to the current Broadway season.
Schmigadoon! (★★★★★) runs through Sept. 6 at the Nederlander Theatre, 208 West 41st St., in New York City. Tickets are $59 to $279. Visit schmigadoonbroadway.com.
A story told in fragments of past and present, Rachel Bonds' unflinching drama Jonah guards its mysteries closely. The play's fractured narrative, prone to misdirection, coalesces at a careful pace before the pieces, like shards of memory, assemble into a complete picture.
Studio Theatre's production, directed by Taylor Reynolds (Studio's triumphant Fat Ham), handily juggles the complicated plot while maintaining a quietly tense atmosphere. The foreboding mood persists even in the lighter moments between introspective teen Ana (Ismenia Mendes) and the boy she allows to sneak in through her dorm window, Jonah (Rohan Maletira).
The freaks are back. Over fifty years ago, an unemployed British-born actor named Richard O'Brien was putting together a show just to "occupy himself." The busywork paid off. The Rocky Horror Show eventually took flight in London in 1973, grabbed hold of Americans at Los Angeles' Roxy Theater, and then transferred to Broadway, where it folded after a mere 45 performances. Apparently, New Yorkers didn't care about the slab in the lab.
When the now iconic movie, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, premiered in 1975, the reception was equally as limp. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that it was "ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they'd seen it."
Beckoning the audience to a tale told by firelight, Rorschach Theatre's well-lit production of Jenny Connell Davis' Dragon Play sets out to stir tense domestic drama with a corresponding fable about a flying, fire-breathing beast. But the play's mixture of disparate elements doesn't truly ignite.
Staged in-the-round by company co-artistic director Randy Baker, inside Rorschach's lofty concrete space at the Stacks, Dragon Play generally feels like two plays running in tandem.
In a middle-class home -- evoked through a humdrum open kitchen set by Sarah Beth Hall -- a married couple, Woman (Erin Denman) and Man (Erik Harrison), approach a breaking point in their quarrelsome relationship. As she confesses, she's too hung up on her former lover, the Dragon (Jalen Wilson-Nelem), who's come back to her looking like "sex dipped in Sumatran chocolate."
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